Thursday, 9 February 2023

Bills

Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Anthony Carbines:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Tim McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (10:05): I am delighted to rise and make some comments on the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022. The Shadow Minister for Racing, the member for Gippsland East, is unwell this week, and I am happy to step in and support him on this bill. As we know, this bill lapsed in the last Parliament after the government did not introduce it until the last sitting week, giving it no chance of getting through the upper house.

Racing is a great part of our state’s and our nation’s heritage, and certainly I want to put up-front that this bill has largely been driven by the industry. This amendment seeks to make those who are attending our race meetings more accountable and more responsible for their behaviour, and that is the reason why we will be supporting this legislation. When we read the second-reading speech, there is commentary from the Minister for Racing about how these are important reforms and how we need to get these processes in place, and I am pleased that this bill, which lapsed, as I said, in the previous Parliament, has certainly now been prioritised. Due respect to the Minister for Racing, who I think probably by his own admission came to this portfolio with relatively limited knowledge of the racing industry and is on a steep learning curve, but I am sure that he knows and he has cottoned on to the fact that racing in Victoria is an absolutely enormous economic driver, has a huge following – cult like – around the state, and many of us have some form of racing in our electorates, whether it is thoroughbreds, whether it is greyhounds, whether it is harness racing.

So a couple of comments – whilst we are supporting the bill because the content of it is basically common sense, I will be very interested to see whether our friends from the Greens are prepared to come in and make comment on the racing bill, because we know how anti racing they are. But this bill is not necessarily about racing, it is about behaviour on the racecourse. It is about preventing situations where spectators interact, largely inappropriately, with the horses, and this is a safety issue for the horses and the humans. That is what this bill is primarily about. We know the Greens hate racing – they have said it on numerous occasions – but I do hope that they will see the common sense in this being a safety matter and that this bill addresses safety elements relating to the racing industry. I will be very keen to see what their approach is – whether they are going to have a commonsense approach or whether they will go with their usual opposition to everything to do with racing.

Racing does have a very long and proud history in this state, and anybody who is involved in the industry knows that it is a very good industry and a very strong industry. We have world-class racing and training facilities. It is an industry that employs many, many thousands of Victorians across the length and the breadth of this state. The latest figures – and they go back a couple of years – are that the racing industry is worth $4.3 billion to the Victorian economy, with over 33,000 full-time equivalent jobs and over 120,000 people directly involved in the industry. That is a massive industry in anyone’s language. Obviously there are a lot of part-time workers when you look at stablehands and track riders and the like. But it is a massive industry here in Victoria – as we know, nationally, but certainly in Victoria – and it is growing.

Certainly in communities like mine, in Wangaratta, which are fortunate enough to have a thoroughbred racetrack, we understand the importance of this industry. Sean Barrett is our CEO up at Wangaratta and does a fantastic job managing the track, managing the trainers and obviously the race days. Most punters and racegoers who turn up at a racetrack on race day see the glitz and the glamour of the race day, but the reality is it is the trainers that provide the funds that keep these turf clubs ticking over. The trainers every day of the week have early starts, as we know – jockeys, trainers, stablehands – and they benefit from these facilities. But as I say, they are economic drivers through the whole of the region –Wangaratta itself, but certainly broader than that, out in the regions, out in the country areas outside of Wangaratta.

Bill Carlisle, president of the Wangaratta Turf Club, and his board have continued to see its impressive facilities grow into what they are today. I must say, when I came into this place in 2010 the Wangaratta club was on its knees. It was financially in a bad place – in a very poor place. With the support of successive governments we now have a first-class facility in Wangaratta, which is just outstanding. The former Premier and racing minister Denis Napthine was very, very supportive of Wangaratta and helped sow the seed to clear the path for trainers, who are the backbone of the industry and who pay to use the facility. Denis was and still is a great lover of the thoroughbred industry and all things racing. Former racing minister Pakula was also outstanding as a supporter of the Wangaratta Turf Club. Without his commitment we would not have what we have today in the social facilities and the training facilities at Wangaratta. So I certainly want to commend former racing minister Pakula for what he did for Wangaratta and for racing all throughout Victoria. It shows that when both sides of the house act constructively and in harmony great results can occur. I know the current Minister for Racing will be a great supporter of this industry as well.

Again, as I say, the Wang Turf Club is one of the premier venues in regional Victoria, thanks to government support, hard work by the community, the board and those who work at Wangaratta Turf Club. They host dozens of events. The Wangaratta Cup is coming up on 4 March, as are the spring carnival and the Christmas races. In fact Wangaratta was lucky to pick up four extra race meetings this summer because some tracks were too wet. Again, they jumped into action – they have had three of those four already, and they have been a great success. But it is not fair to the families and the hardworking trainers and employees to have their race meetings interrupted by disrespectful protesters. This is their livelihood, and as I said, it provides countless jobs in the local community. That is just a very, very small snapshot and insight into what a massive industry this is.

Another important part of this industry is the thoroughbred breeding industry. Northern Victoria is home to some of the major breeders worldwide. The member for Euroa knows only too well that it is a multimillion-dollar contributor to her electorate. In Euroa and around Nagambie are some of the best breeders in the world as well. Each of these studs at this time of the year is a hive of activity, with people running around and undertaking this very important work for what is a multimillion-dollar contributor to the local economy in the electorate of Euroa and wider.

This, as I say, is just a small snapshot. The breeding industry in Victoria has come ahead in leaps and bounds in the last decade to the stage where we are now rivalling New South Wales, which for a long time was known as the breeding mecca of Australian racing, and Victoria is right up there with them now. When you take these things into consideration, it just astounds me that some elected representatives who sit in this chamber and some who sit on the other side of Queen’s Hall are opposed to this great industry. I am obviously talking about the Greens and the Animal Justice Party, who openly say that they want to end racing. But when you have a think about some of the Greens policies, it is probably just in line with them wanting to ban most of the things that we enjoy in regional Victoria. So that is how it rolls. Rural and regional people are not impressed with those from Fitzroy who want to overlay their view of the world onto the regional centres that feed this state and are also the playground of our metro cousins and the economic drivers for this state. The industry is and should be recognised as being a key economic driver in this state, because that is very much what it is.

It is not just about the spring and autumn carnivals. It is about week in, week out racing – thoroughbreds, greyhounds and harness racing in little towns, in big towns and in metro Melbourne. We see racing at Caulfield, Flemington, the Valley and Sandown – the big race meetings. But let us not forget you have got the Pakenhams and Cranbournes of the world, the next tier down, and certainly other racetracks right across regional Victoria. Right throughout our autumn period we have a huge amount of significant race meetings, a lot of country cups and other feature events that are so important to the economies of those local towns. Our picnic circuit – the annual picnic race meetings that go on in many electorates are sometimes the biggest event for the year. They are events that bring people together, events that raise money for local charities or services, and the horses are nearly secondary, because the fun and the social occasion that they create are the benefits of picnic races. In some of these small communities, as I say, it is the highlight of the calendar, and the Dederang races are an example of that.

I attended Dederang last year – just a massive picnic race. People come from far and wide. Of course in Wodonga and Wangaratta they head there; people just come out of the hills. This year it is on 25 February. If anybody wants to come to the Dederang Cup, they will enjoy an absolutely outstanding day. As I say, these race days are a really strong part of their communities and their culture. I know the member for Eildon and the member for South-West Coast will also contribute on this bill. They have a great understanding and a great appreciation for country racing. I know the racing in and around Healesville and other small communities is a highlight of the calendar every year, and I am sure when the member for South-West Coast makes her contribution, she will mention the Warrnambool Racing Club carnival – what it does for the township and what it does for the economy down there. It is absolutely massive, but sadly, as I said earlier, we have got people who want to come in here as elected representatives and try to get rid of this fantastic industry. The races are a part of our fabric; they are a part of our make-up. We need to support racing because it is such an important industry. We on this side of the house – well, most of us on this side of the house; as I said, there are a couple who do not necessarily agree with racing up the back there, but the majority of us do – recognise the great benefit not only of this bill but obviously that the industry brings to the state.

I will get on to some of the elements of the bill and the provisions included in it – the first being to prohibit unauthorised access to certain areas of racecourses during race meetings and official trials. Trials are a big event these days, where a lot of horses are schooled so that they can be presented to race effectively on race day. I am advised there are no changes to the status quo of what exists now in legislation, but the bill does formalise those permissions that are included. It introduces new charges for all race meetings and official trial meetings as well as provides for enforcement of those provisions. A key point that we will make is that provisions included in this bill are currently covered in the Major Events Act 2009, which manages crowd provisions at eight major races. The Major Events Act 2009 provides for certain rules and regulations in the eight major races in the spring carnival to stop protesters coming onto the track. What this bill does is it now broadens that to every race meeting and every trial, and that is common sense. That is a very good approach, because we get people at little country meetings or other meetings, like the Warrnambool Cup and those sorts of places, who try to misbehave. That is where what currently exists at those eight major meetings is broadened out in this bill to every race meeting and every trial. We are now at a stage where racing is much bigger than those eight major meetings, with more meetings on city tracks. We have also got, as I mentioned, an enormous amount on regional tracks, from Mildura to Warrnambool, Bairnsdale to Corryong and everywhere in between. This bill seeks to include equivalent arrangements to that Major Events Act and duplicate them so that they cover all those meetings. Again, as I say, we certainly support that.

The main area of change in this legislation sets standards for behaviour at certain locations on a course. That could be adjacent to mounting yards and obviously near where the horses are running or competing on the track itself. It relates to throwing or kicking projectiles, causing projectiles to enter a restricted area and climbing on fences or barricades that are adjacent to the restricted racing area. It will be interesting to see, as I said earlier, these very important safety measures. I do hope that we get full support in this chamber for the safety elements that we are trying to put in place here. It is common sense. These sorts of behaviours, which others encourage, unfortunately – idiots trying to invade the racetrack – have no place at trials or at race meetings. It really is stupidity at its greatest level, and we need to prevent that. It leads, obviously, to the horses acting in an unpredictable manner. It can not only lead to a jockey injury but also impact crowds – so crowd injuries as well. So for the patrons that we see taking part in this stupidity – for want of a better word – there are generally two reasons: they are either drunk or they have got some anti-racing banner strapped to them and they are trying to make some ridiculous point with it.

As I say, this bill is designed to prevent that sort of behaviour. One small area of concern that I believe the minister needs to address more specifically is in the second-reading speech where it states that these new laws are to be enforced by police and authorised officers. That is fine when you are at Flemington, Sandown and the bigger race meetings – the Valley, Caulfield. In smaller communities like Wangaratta, police do not necessarily have a regular presence at these smaller race meetings, and if there are no police there, according to the second-reading speech the enforcement will fall to those authorised officers. An authorised officer – hypothetically we are talking about PSOs. They will not be there either, obviously, in regional Victoria. This bill intends to make stewards authorised officers and where required some club personnel. That, I suppose, in one sense ticks that box to say there is an authorised officer there. But in many instances these people who are given that job as authorised officers – stewards and club personnel – are actually pretty busy on any race day as it is. They have got their hands full doing what they need to do to run the track and to make sure everything goes seamlessly, and we just have to be careful about where that onus lies and making sure that they are resourced well enough. Maybe a speaker on the other side, from the government benches, might be able to clarify that for us – as to how that will unfold. I am not saying that stewards are not the right people; stewards just have enough on at a race day meeting. Maybe that is something we can flag and just watch this space as we go forward and see how this all rolls out in a practical manner. We need to have a situation where we are sure that the people have the time available and are not otherwise engaged in what, as I say, is a busy race day. We need some of those people to have the flexibility and the time to act when required.

I do note that all the codes and various interested groups have been pushing for this outcome and stronger and tougher rules, so it is largely, as I say, an industry-driven bill, and they are the best bills. When we get an industry who stands up and says, ‘We want to change. We need change. We are trying to make this safer’, and you have got both sides very keen to support it, that is what we want to see, particularly in an industry that is growing and is an economic driver for a lot of communities.

Cobram Harness Racing Club is another terrific club in my electorate. In smaller communities, a border town like Cobram Barooga, it is a great opportunity to have harness racing. We need to protect smaller communities like that to ensure that there are no idiots that want to create a scene and cause trouble, because it is really just a local track meeting that provides an enormous boost for the local economy but certainly social opportunities as well. Again, I say that this bill is about safety trackside and making stupid people accountable for stupid actions on or near a racetrack that is a risk either to humans or horses – or greyhounds, for that matter. I do hope we do not have to deal with any amendments later on from the Greens or the Animal Justice Party, who will have their say somewhere along the track, I am sure. As I say, hopefully common sense can prevail and the bill will pass when it goes forward.

While on racing I want to mention Dan McCarthy Racing in Wangaratta. I do have to confess that my wife has a very small part in a horse called Gulf of Aden, which was saluted this week in Wodonga, which was very exciting to see. That is the sort of thing that racing does. It brings a whole heap of people together with a common knowledge. They get together at the racetrack and have a bit of fun. Although sometimes it is very frustrating, sometimes you get a bit of joy out of it. We got some joy this week. Tahlia Hope did a wonderful job riding that horse this week at Wodonga, and there are many, many happy people around Wangaratta at the moment. Dan Wallace is undoubtedly the unofficial mayor of our local industry. I am sure he wants to see more wins both locally in Wodonga and maybe in metropolitan. As I say, this is an example of having a little share in a horse that is part of an industry where you go and catch up with people, and that is what our communities love to do. It is just an opportunity to get together, for whatever reason.

I have spoken about the thoroughbred industry a lot. Greyhound racing is a significant player in this space. We did lose our greyhounds in Wangaratta in 2009. They were taken away by the Brumby government. That decision was a very hasty decision, and we had concerns at the time. I say it is never too late to revisit this opportunity. I would like to think the minister could see that maybe 2023 is an excellent opportunity to reverse this decision. We will talk about that as we go forward, because there is room for greyhound racing in north-east Victoria, that is for sure. The industry is more than just race day; it is about the training facilities and all those things as well. As I have said, the industry contributes some $4.3 billion to the Victorian economy, and the greyhound racing industry contributes almost $500 million – so half a billion dollars from the greyhound industry alone. Bringing a piece of that pie back to Wangaratta would be well appreciated by the Wangaratta community and surrounding communities; they would support greyhound racing if there was room to do it. I think, as this industry goes, there are opportunities we can look at, and the government, who I have consistently praised in this industry, in their support for Wangaratta, could get on board and maybe help us with some greyhound racing industry in this region as well.

We have a one-off harness racing night at Avian Park in Wangaratta, and that is fantastic. It is an opportunity to still have the industry going in Wangaratta. Although it is only one racing night a year, it shows that with limited resources you can still enjoy it and people will come out. They say, ‘Build it and people will come.’ Well, this is the same; if you hold events, people will come. They love these nights out, and they support them.

Racing in country Victoria is an essential part of regional life and provides thousands of jobs, as I have mentioned, and millions of dollars in local economic benefits to our communities. These benefits are often ignored by the city-based activists, who have got no idea about well-cared-for animals and how well they are cared for or the importance of the racing industry. The last thing a family wants or needs during a fun day out at the races is an idiot running onto the track or out on the course, risking their life and ruining the day for everybody else involved.

I will conclude my remarks by saying that the racing industry in all forms – thoroughbreds, harness racing and greyhounds – is an extremely professional industry. It is an economic driver for local communities and of course an economic driver for the state, and it has certainly earned the right to be protected from fools that want to disrupt a great day out. These commonsense reforms or inclusions will help make the industry safer for animals and humans. As I say again, we are supporting this bill, and I encourage other members in this place to support a safer industry.

Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (10:28:468:): I am very pleased to rise today to support the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022, which will further ensure the safety of Victoria’s racing events – especially in my electorate of Wendouree, which is home to Ballarat Greyhound Racing Club and Ballarat & District Trotting Club in Redan. This bill will also benefit the Ballarat Turf Club, located a stone’s throw from my electorate, in Ripon, and I wish to congratulate the newly elected member for Ripon. I look forward to working together to achieve more great outcomes for our region.

I am thrilled to be the first government speaker to talk on this, because I am a big supporter of the racing industry. I am a member of the Ballarat Turf Club. I am a member of the Ballarat & District Trotting Club, and I am really pleased to follow the member for Ovens Valley. I was nodding in agreement with the contribution that you were making –

Tim McCurdy: That is a change.

Juliana ADDISON: It is a change – about how important this industry is to regional Victoria. It is important to my electorate, and we are hearing how important it is to Wangaratta and the Ovens Valley. So, yes, it is commonsense reform, and I am delighted that the opposition is supporting this bill.

I would like to start today by congratulating the Minister for Racing for this legislation as well as the good work that he is doing with this portfolio, and I really hope that the minister can come and join me in Ballarat before too long to witness some of our truly fantastic regional racing events and to meet our local CEOs, our board members, our trainers, our club members and of course the incredible staff that play such an important role in making a day at the races such a great day. I would also like to thank the minister’s office, and I thank the people who are here today, particularly Vic, who is working very closely with and is always a great support to my office. Thanks so much, Vic, for being here today. It is very important that when you bring any legislation to this place you undertake extensive stakeholder engagement, and that is what the minister’s office has done and that is what the department has done.

I am grateful for those who have contributed their expertise and their experience, because this bill has included feedback and insights from Racing Victoria, Harness Racing Victoria and Greyhound Racing Victoria – people that I have spent a bit of time with at different race meetings over the years, good people who care about racing and care about the welfare of the animals that race, so I am really pleased. These changes that will be implemented, if this bill passes, I know are going to make a real difference to my local clubs and to the local industry.

It is interesting that the member for Ovens Valley also talked about racing being a part of our social fabric, because it is. Racing is such an important part of our social history of this state – from champions like Phar Lap, who drew the huge crowds to Flemington, giving hope to Victorians during the Depression, to more recent times when champion Winx won four consecutive Cox Plates – just amazing. This horse captured our hearts and our interest and was just such a champion. There are not many other places in the world that have a public holiday for a race meet, and I think that is something that we should all be very proud of. But then again there are not many places in the world that have a race meet like the Melbourne Cup. Not only is it a race that stops a nation, it is a truly global horserace. It also resonates very locally. My mum holds the family sweep – the winner takes home $25. She rings everyone in the family, it is handwritten, she then takes photos of what horse you have got and as soon as the results are out, she is texting everyone – at 81 she is all over this. It is also great walking down Sturt Street on the first Tuesday in November. You will be seeing the fascinators, you will walk into shops and people will have the floral arrangements.

Cindy McLeish interjected.

Juliana ADDISON: Sorry, Cindy, I am sure you wear a fascinator to work on cup day.

A member interjected.

Juliana ADDISON: Exactly. There is so much excitement at around 3 o’clock on that race day, and it is really important to local communities. It is no secret that Victoria is proudly the pre-eminent racing jurisdiction in Australia, and there is a good reason for that: the racing industry contributes $4.7 billion in economic activity to Victoria and sustains almost 35,000 full-time equivalent jobs. As a proud regional Victorian I am delighted that 9000 of these full-time equivalent jobs are in regional Victoria and that over $1 billion of economic activity is generated within regional Victoria through our racing industry.

It is imperative that our government continues to support our racing clubs and helps them ensure the safety and wellbeing of all racing patrons and participants, and it is especially important to name workplace safety for the racing industry employees, such as stewards and jockeys, and also for our horses and dogs. There are several areas of a racecourse which are in practice off limits to the general public during a race meeting or a trial meeting. As the member for Ovens Valley explained, under the Major Events Act 2009 participants in this area, including animals, are protected but only during the eight specific spring carnival events. Racing in Victoria is so much more than just the spring carnival. Just to give you an example, there will be 215 race meetings held in Ballarat across our six racecourses over a year. The Major Events Act only covers eight races in Melbourne when there are 215 races in my region that deserve protection, and those workers do deserve that protection as well.

Stupid and dangerous behaviour, such as running onto a track during a race, is thankfully rare, but when it occurs the potential consequences are severe. That is why this bill, the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022, intends to extend similar protections to those already in place under the Major Events Act to now cover all race and trial meetings across the state. It does this by amending the Racing Act 1958, detailing the requisite offences as well as enforcement protocols and penalties. The proposed offences cover (1) unauthorised entry into restricted racing areas as well as disrupting a race or trial meeting from within a restricted area, (2) throwing or kicking a projectile in a restricted area or causing an object to fly in and (3) climbing a fence or barricade which separates a restricted area. These offences include commonsense exceptions and defences so commonplace and emergency activities will not be impacted. Areas which would be restricted are also in practice already inaccessible to the public during an event – for example, tracks, parade rings, stables and kennels.

This bill will also provide for enforcement of the new provisions by police officers, if present, or suitable persons appointed as authorised officers, such as race day stewards. There are practical arrangements informed by extensive consultation with the industry, and in instances when offending is repeated or its consequences are significant, the bill provides for courts to impose bans and orders of up to five years applying to specific meetings or meeting categories.

This bill does not affect the enjoyment of racegoers and does not prevent protests in public areas; rather, it provides strong deterrents to dangerous behaviours in off limits working areas – deterrents that are already in place, as I said, at other major sporting events. These amendments will protect the health and safety of participants, patrons, officials and animals during the many events held in Victoria, Australia’s pre-eminent racing state.

The social impact of the racing industry is also significant. It supports the good work of over 1200 charities, and hundreds of community and not-for-profit organisations benefit from the use of racing facilities. These clubs are key facilities for local communities. I know my former school still have their year 12 dinner at the local trotting club and there are weddings at the local greyhounds and stuff like that, so it does provide an important social space for people to celebrate important events. That is why it is also important that we make sure that our racing industry can support local communities.

I would really like to thank all the CEOs in Ballarat. CEO Belinda Glass from the Ballarat Turf Club and her great team put on a great show. The Ballarat Cup is the last race of the Spring Racing Carnival in November each year; you are all invited to come. Manager of Ballarat greyhounds Jodie Faralla – I look forward to catching up with you soon. And of course the CEO at the Ballarat & District Trotting Club Paul Rouse and the board, David Young and all the team, thank you very much for the important work you do. I look forward to catching up with you, because what you do is so important for my community. I commend the bill to the house.

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (10:38): This is an important bill for the racing sector, the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022. I will note that this is my second contribution on this bill. The last speech in the last Parliament I made was on this bill and the first that I am making in this Parliament is also on this bill. That is disappointing, because the government really did not take it seriously enough to actually get it through the last Parliament. They introduced it and did not debate it until several weeks later. I think the racing industry were very disappointed with that. To be debating it as Parliament is about to finish, when on that same day we had so many valedictory speeches – I was really disappointed that the government chose the timing that they did. I am pleased to see it is early up this time. It is such an important bill for this sector that the coalition does support it. We understand and we know that it has been driven by the industry. There have been well-documented events over the years that have really jeopardised the health and safety of so many people involved – not just the horses but the jockeys, participants and officials – because of bad behaviour of patrons, so there do need to be changes.

The key area here is to provide greater accountability and responsibility for those attending the races. Now, most of us will attend races and behave well – some people perhaps overindulge in some areas, but typically people behave – but you get that very small group that go there to disrupt the races. Whether that be a greyhound race, trotting race or other gallops, there are people that do the wrong thing at times. I know that the clubs go all out to try and prevent things from happening. They understand the seriousness. They know what it is like when a horse gets spooked and what a horse can do – it can not just throw a jockey but it can bolt, and it can bolt through fences depending on what has happened. It can be really quite distressing for everybody involved, including the animal. It is just so important that we have these changes to make it easier for clubs, because they do the right thing.

I look at the number of picnic clubs that I have in my area – and I know that a lot of them are surrounded by houses – and what they have to do to make sure that participants at the races do not interact the wrong way with the floats coming in. There is always a separate float entrance. There are always restrictions about who can go where and why, and that is not just to maintain some sort of order, but that is to protect the health and safety of those who are at the racetrack. You would think, actually, that this does not need to be legislated, but sadly, it does, because we have too many instances of people not doing the right thing. As I have said, animal welfare and the safety of the participants is a concern.

The racing industry itself is particularly important to Victoria. It was estimated a couple of years ago at $4.3 billion. That is a very large industry, with 33,000 equivalent full-time jobs. If you look at the types of jobs that we have, you have those that you think about – obviously the people at the racetracks. The CEOs of some of the larger racetracks have the staff because they have got to put the events on. You will have catering staff, but you also have jobs in the breeding industry, and the breeding industry is particularly important in country Victoria. Whether you are trying to breed the next Melbourne Cup winner – sometimes that does not happen, and you might just breed those horses for running around on the picnic tracks. It is particularly important to consider all of these different groups that are involved in the industry in terms of who is employed, because it is really quite wide.

Not only that – there are so many volunteers. I look again at all of the clubs in my electorate, even the larger clubs like Yarra Valley Racing – which is not a picnic track, it is a larger club – and the volunteers on the boards and the committees and the work and the effort that they put in to bring about a great event for people. Every weekend there are racing events on, not just in my electorate. The committees do a really great job and put in so many hours.

For small towns racing has such an important economic contribution – all of the food, all of the catering, the marquees, the hiring. They bring people. The bus companies drive people from the centre of town to the tracks. The bus companies bring people from Melbourne. We rely so heavily on those patrons to really provide that economic boost. I know that every time there is a picnic race, whether it be in Mansfield, Merton or Healesville, the accommodation is full, because people come and they make a big weekend of it. We have so many bucks and hens nights, and people come out for great fun. Occasionally those events do get a little bit out of hand, and people might try and run on the track and places where they should not, but I think the clubs have pretty well worked it out – that if you allow running up the track at a certain time, that allows that activity and curtails it.

I have represented some of the larger tracks in Seymour and Kilmore as well. I have got greyhound racing at Healesville on a straight track. It is a really great track there. They have so many events. I have got harness racing in the Yarra Valley. I see so many of these different events and understand the importance to the towns and the economic contribution.

Specifically around the bill here, the changes are driven by the industry. One of the key points – and it has been mentioned – is we have these requirements already in the Major Events Act 2009. There are eight events associated with the spring carnival, but there are so many more events that happen on long weekends, over summer, at different times of the year, where they draw large crowds, and they need the same protections. This bill extends or duplicates those types of crowd management provisions across the sector. The bill seeks to include these specified crowd management provisions so that the conduct is prohibited at all race meetings, as I said, across the board and at official trial meetings. Trial meetings actually can be quite large. I remember going to my first trial meeting. It was when I was at university. It was a very long time ago, and it was a very large one at Flemington. I can remember Kingston Town was quite proud of itself at the time. But the crowds were really large, and things can happen at those events as well, so I was pleased to see that this does include the trials.

This is about setting the standards for behaviour at specific locations on a course. That might be adjacent to mounting yards. It can relate to behaviours like throwing or kicking projectiles – it could be a footy but it could be a full bottle of water or it could be a bottle of beer; it could be something that is glass; people do very much the wrong things – and climbing on fences and barricades. They cross those, and that is just not on. We do need these protections because, as I have said, if a horse gets spooked from a projectile or from people climbing, people doing the wrong thing, it can have really horrible consequences.

There is one area of concern: that the second-reading speech says that these laws are to be enforced by police. I know that police are not always present at the races, at the non-major meetings. So in that case the enforcement falls to authorised officers. The chances of those being at Merton’s one-day event on New Year’s Day are pretty slim. In my area Mansfield get a couple of picnic events, Yea get a handful, Alexandra get a handful. Often we need minimal disruptions because they can tend to get washed out or be too hot and be called off. When they are on, they just need all of the support that they can have.

This bill here is a deterrent for poor behaviour, and I hope that it does make a difference, because we do know that there are so many people out there who do not support the racing industry. I hope that a number of new people, certainly on the government benches, that have been elected understand the importance of the racing industry, not just in metropolitan Melbourne at those big events but also what an impact it has for country Victoria. Around the cabinet table I would like to see much greater support for racing, and I would really urge the Minister for Racing to continue to find funding to support the small clubs, because they cannot do it alone; they do need those grants. In particular I would like the minister to have a look at how he can support the industry by providing funding to evaluate the economic contribution that racing makes to a town. It was put to me 10 years or so ago that every race meeting in Healesville had a $300,000 economic contribution to the town. That is important. It would be much more now, but if we know those figures, I think it provides so much more support for an industry that needs supporting.

Chris COUZENS (Geelong) (10:48): I am pleased to rise to contribute to the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022, and can I start by thanking the Minister for Racing for his work on this bill. This is a really important bill because it is about safety of people and animals, but we are also talking about people’s workplaces as well, which is a really important factor in all this. We know that over recent years there have been some incidences of unauthorised entry to racetrack areas during the running of a horserace in Victoria. Although it has not happened that often, there is concern about the potential consequences of somebody doing that, which could result in serious injury or death to people or animals, participants and officials. As I said, these are workplaces. People need to feel safe in their workplace, so officials and people working around racing tracks should have that safety aspect taken into account.

The bill amends the Racing Act 1958 to provide for offences and penalties to ensure the safety and welfare of all patrons and participants, including animals, at all Victorian race meetings and official trial meetings. There has been a great deal of consultation on this bill, which is really good. We have looked at what industry have had to say on this, and we have heard a bit about that already in the chamber. But I want to point out that this is not about stopping people from protesting at races. They can still protest, and I am a big supporter of protests when they are necessary, but it has to be done in a safe way so that we do not have foolish and dangerous activities from people that put other people in danger, basically, and animals. As I said, this is not about getting rid of protests, this is about protecting everyone and preventing those harmful acts from occurring.

In Geelong we have the Geelong Racing Club. We hold the Geelong Cup, which is highly valued in my community. It provides jobs and boosts our economy. We have tourists coming in. People want to go and watch the Geelong Cup. But it is much more than that, and we have heard that from previous speakers. It is about that sense of community; it is about socialising in a different environment. It is a huge deal in Geelong to go to the Geelong Cup. For many people it is about the social aspect, but it is also about the cup sweeps that we have for the Geelong Cup and obviously the Melbourne Cup. The Geelong Cup is in October and then we have the Melbourne Cup in November. They are real icons in our community, these races.

The Geelong Racecourse is one of the most significant regional racecourses in Victoria. It holds around 25 meetings a year and, as I mentioned, the Geelong Cup as well. As I said, people flock to that race. People want to have a good time, they want to have a flutter and they want to enjoy the day, and we have heard about the festivities that go with that – picnics and all sorts of marquees and different things – and they do not want to see this foolish and dangerous behaviour that is going to ruin everyone’s day and also, potentially, harm people or animals. I am a big supporter of animal safety. I think animals need to be protected, but when we have these protesters outside of racing clubs, for example – which they are more than entitled to do – some of their actions can also impact the safety of animals during their protests. They can protest around the different areas that are not restricted – it is the responsibility of the club to deal with that, as it always is – but I know in my community the people of Geelong do not want those sorts of things happening at our races, particularly big races like the Geelong Cup.

The Geelong Racing Club provides all sorts of opportunities in my community. We heard the member for Wendouree talking about the different events that these clubs provide for our community – the different charity programs that they have and family days. In Geelong the Geelong Racing Club is a really important icon in our community that people rely on, but it also provides the economic activity that our community needs. It creates jobs and the tourism side of it. People coming in, using our hotels and using our restaurants all bring that economy activity that we need in our community. Unfortunately, when incidents happen, like where someone has been injured or something happens to a horse because somebody has been an idiot basically, it really makes people think about whether they want to go to these things. So we need to have the mechanisms in place to deal with them and to prevent people thinking that they can go in and run across the track or throw something on the track. We need to have the preventative mechanisms in place to stop that from happening.

Obviously the racing industry contributes huge amounts of money to Victoria, and as I said, in Geelong it is around $130 million a year that is brought into my community through the Geelong Racing Club, which is really significant. As I said, there has been a lot of consultation with industry. The opposition are supporting this bill; we are supporting the bill. I think it is really important that we continue to ensure that we do have those safety provisions in place to prevent these things happening. The new offences contained in the bill are around unauthorised entry into restricted racing areas. We are not saying people cannot protest out the front or whatever, but there are unauthorised entry provisions that restrict people from going into those areas.

Offences include disrupting a race meeting or an official trial meeting from within a restricted racing area, throwing or kicking a projectile into or within a restricted racing area, causing an object to fly into or land in a restricted racing area and climbing a fence or barricade which separates a restricted racing area from a non-restricted area. We know that some people may not be protesting; they might just be an idiot who decides to run across the track or throw something onto the track or at a horse. I think the member for Eildon in her contribution talked about horses being spooked and those sorts of things and the danger of that. We do need to ensure that those preventive mechanisms are in place and that we keep those areas safe. They are workplaces. There are lots of people around. As I said, the Geelong Cup is packed with patrons wanting to enjoy the day, and if we do not put those preventions in place and an incident happens, it makes it very difficult for people to think that they can go and enjoy a race and not have these things happen.

We know how important it is. We have heard from the industry. The industry very much support this bill, so I think it is important for us as legislators to ensure that we are protecting our community. I know that my community in Geelong, Geelong Racing Club, their members and the trainers – everybody – are on board with this bill, because they understand the importance of it. I do think that this bill is really significant for my community, having such a big racing club in Geelong. I commend the bill to the house.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Just before I call the member, I remind members to acknowledge the Chair as they pass the end of the table.

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (10:58): I rise to speak on the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022. The purpose of this bill is to amend the Racing Act 1958. It is a bill that will prohibit unauthorised access to certain areas of racecourses during meetings and official trial meetings, particularly out at country race meetings, because it already happens in the main racing arenas. The main purpose of this legislative change is to set a standard of behaviour at certain locations, such as around the track, mounting yard and stables – the restricted areas – but it is also to improve safety. Behaviours such as climbing fences adjacent to restricted areas or throwing or kicking projectiles into restricted areas are included in this legislation, as is the flying of drones over those restricted areas.

Those things sound like things you normally would never, ever do in an arena where there are animals, particularly horses, which get shocked and startled quite easily. But in this day and age many people do not understand the sensitivities around animals, so unfortunately, we have to put legislation in place to get, what seems to me, normal common sense. But it is more the disruptive and deliberate behaviours that this bill is probably really trying to address. It is really quite upsetting for people like me who have worked with animals all of their lives to think that people would deliberately cause intentional damage or harm to an animal.

When you look back, in 2010 in my part of the world a then 56-year-old full-time student from Melbourne ran onto the Warrnambool Racecourse only minutes before the Grand Annual Steeplechase. He was convicted and fined in the Warrnambool court. That was a deliberate act. He told the Standard he would do it again if it would end jumps racing. That is why this legislation is so important. Protesters believe the cause justifies the means, but it actually just as much endangers themselves or other patrons and officials and the horses. In recent years protesters have used drones at Warrnambool Racecourse, so I am also really glad to see this as part of the bill. The bill does not restrict people from protesting outside the race meeting, which happens every year, and I totally endorse the right of people to peacefully protest. That is a democratic right and not something that we should stop. But having deliberate impact and causing unsafe issues to happen around people or animals is just abhorrent in my mind.

I look at the importance of racing in our region to families who run businesses, like tourism and accommodation businesses and hospitality businesses, and events like our May race carnival. The Warrnambool Racing Club has been going for 150 years, and this year on 18 March I will be celebrating with the Warrnambool Racing Club its 150-year anniversary. Congratulations to all of the people who have made that, over the years, a great club. To get to 150 years is certainly commendable. I wish them all very well for the celebration events, and I look forward to taking part in them as well, because Warrnambool is very fortunate to have the May race carnival. It contributes an enormous amount to, as I said, the economy. But ‘economy’ is a word that actually means ‘the families who live in that area, who run the businesses, who educate their children’. Racing overall contributes $112 million to the South-West Coast economy per annum. That is harness racing, which is $19.1 million; greyhound racing, $14.5 million; and horseracing – thoroughbred racing – which is $78.6 million. That is just in the South-West Coast – $112.3 million. That is huge. It employs 900 people in our region – community members who all work together to bring the racing events to be such a celebration and time to come together. There are 637 full-time people in the thoroughbred industry, 148 in harness racing and 114 people in greyhound racing – a huge amount, who are contributing to the wellbeing of our community.

Almost 30,000 people attended the three-day May race carnival last year – in 2022 – and every year it seems to get bigger and bigger. That carnival itself – the three-day carnival – which has the longest race in the Southern Hemisphere, which we are very proud of, generates $15 million for the Warrnambool economy just over those three days and employs another 250 casual staff to cover that period of three days. Not only do we have the May races but we have got 20 race meetings in Warrnambool each year, with the Jericho Cup, which has started in the last five years, I think it is, and is going from strength to strength. Again, well done to the committee who started that. How well it is going is fantastic because of the enthusiasm we have from people like those committee members. The Lafferty–Thackeray day and the Koroit, Port Fairy and Woodford cups are other very well-known and well-supported race meets.

It is really disappointing that we have to get to this point where people will deliberately cause mayhem and put at risk – to try and prove a point – people’s lives and animal’s lives. I have spent a quarter of a century working with animals, and I worked so closely with vets. Every week we would work with vets. We would be up at 4 in the morning, making sure our animals were cared for. We would make sure the last thing we did at night was check them before we went to bed. Any sick animals we would be caring for with every tool we had available to us.

Animals are smart. They do not do what they do not want to do. Farmers know that and horse people know that, and it always astounds me that people judge industries that they have not necessarily been part of. I just encourage people to get involved. If you actually have a problem, get involved and see for yourself. You can address these problems, and that is what we have seen with the racing industry. They have just got continuous improvement going on constantly. They actually support this bill, as do we, and that is why we have a support position on the bill, because the industry has brought this forward so they can protect their animals – and people of course. But the fact is that horses are so well looked after by their trainers, their owners, their stablehands and their carers. Those people are not leaving the industry in droves because they are shocked at what they see and they hate what they do; they love their animals. They have chiropractors for their horses. They have acupuncture for their horses. They have remedial massages going on. It astounds me how much people who work with animals care about them and love them so and spend so much.

I used to say when we were dairy farming I spent more on my animals’ health than I did on my children’s health – probably because we had Medicare rebates and PBS, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, but it was true. We never hesitated if our animals needed to see a specialist. That was absolutely done immediately. So it always shocks me when we judge so wrongly that people are raping and pillaging the landscape and being cruel to animals. It is a bit like parenting. We all absolutely adore our kids, and 99.9 per cent of people do the right thing. Some parents do terrible things, and we are all shocked. It is abhorrent, and we want to make sure that never happens. But you will never be able to legislate for the lowest common denominator’s behaviour, unfortunately, and my message is, ‘Let’s get out there, embrace these industries and not judge without knowledge’. I love seeing this piece of legislation go through, because we are protecting our animals and protecting our people. But let us stop judging the people who know the industry, and let us listen to those who actually work with the industry. Everyone can improve. No-one should be cruel to animals. Anyone who is should absolutely feel the full brunt of the law. But I embrace this legislation. I am very supportive, as is the industry, of this bill, and I look forward to seeing it enacted in legislation.

Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (11:07): It is a pleasure to speak today on the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022, and I would like to associate myself with some fine comments by colleagues from my side of the house, my friends the member for Wendouree and the member for Geelong, and also some of the passionate words from those on the other side of the house who bring a regional perspective to this debate and these issues. A few of us in this house had a few things going on in November last year, and it was a great privilege to be part of those in the run-up to election day on 26 November. But one of the real downsides for me – and I am glad that the member for Wendouree touched upon it – was the inability to get to the Ballarat Cup last year. I love country racing. It adds so much to the vibrancy and to the quality of life of communities around the state, and I look forward to getting back this year.

This bill is necessary. It is a commonsense set of measures. It will prohibit unauthorised access to restricted areas on Victorian racecourses, prohibit other dangerous and disruptive behaviour in or near restricted areas and provide for the enforcement of new provisions. The instances that this bill has been precipitated by are infrequent, but once is too many. It really risks inflicting harm on participants, whether that is horses, dogs, jockeys, those who ensure the safe and timely running of races or those who are there as spectators. We have heard a lot about the content of the bill, and I think that has been well put by both sides of the debate.

But it is still worth noting just the scale of the economic contribution of racing to Victoria. The Victorian racing industry generates nearly $5 billion of value for our economy and supports nearly 150,000 jobs and participants. That includes 25,000 full-time equivalent jobs, and a disproportionate number of those are in regional areas. So I know that my regional colleagues the member for Ripon, the member for Geelong, the member for Wendouree and the member for Eureka understand the value of those jobs to their communities, as indeed do those around the house. Fifty-two per cent of the $4.7 billion in economic activity generated by racing in Victoria does occur in those regional areas of this state, and racing is responsible for generating $3.2 billion of expenditure in Victoria, 65 per cent of which is in regional areas. It is in those marquees. It is in the catering. It is in the stewarding. It is in the young men and women of country Victoria who work at stables as stablehands and in the breeding programs that we have in our state.

I know firsthand just how important racing is in fostering a sense of belonging and community in small towns. As a proud former resident of East Wimmera I have spent far too much time at racetracks at Avoca, at Ballarat, at Dunkeld, at Stawell, at Great Western, at Ararat and closer to Melbourne at Healesville and at Yarra Glen. The member for Ovens Valley made a really good point about the value of picnic races to our country communities. I think it may be in the member for Euroa’s district, but the picnic race at Merton that goes by once a year puts towns like Merton on the map in the Goulburn Valley. These are really profoundly important events for country communities. The stables which are based in small towns are big employers in places like Stawell and Ararat and Ballarat. I know firsthand how many jobs are created by those employers and how important they are for young people entering the labour market to give them good local employment. They also add to the recognition and promotion of those communities around the state. These are televised national events that invariably invoke where the trainers and where the horses have come from. I think that sort of promotion and marketing dimension of the industry to regional and rural Victoria cannot be underestimated.

As I have alluded to, I have got that personal experience of country race meets. They are great fun. They are wonderful opportunities to get out to country Victoria, and I join with those who have spoken already in encouraging all members here to give it a go. When you are one, two, five slabs deep, as some groups can be at the end of the day, it is fun and games until someone hops on the racetrack and decides that it is a great idea to do the last 100 metres with or without clothes. It might be fun at the time in the addled state of mind of those who are doing it, but there is a real risk of harm.

You will have to forgive me – I am a former teacher – but for me the reason why this bill is so necessary is that it is a set of commonsense measures, and I thank the minister for bringing it to the house. It is a question of physics. Momentum equals velocity times mass. If you will forgive me, I have not weighed a horse myself recently, but I am led to believe that your average thoroughbred might be 500 kilos. A decent thoroughbred can get up to about 60 kilometres an hour, so if we boil that down to a speed of metres per second, that gets you to around 16.5 metres per second. If you have got 16.5 metres per second and a 500-kilo thoroughbred, that gives you a velocity of 8332 kilometres per second or Newton-seconds. If you are a slightly inebriated participant at a country racetrack and you have taken the questionable decision to get across the fence and get on the straight, 8330 kilometres per second or Newton-seconds of momentum coming down the track towards you is a profoundly good reason why this bill is a necessary measure. In short, the provisions contained within this bill are a very sensible set of measures that will empower local officials and keep all participants on a racetrack safe – in addition to the eight Victorian major spring racing carnival events that are already covered by similar provisions.

I think it is important to pick up on the comments that my colleague the member for Geelong made – that this bill does not tamper or stomp upon the capacity of people to protest. Legitimate protest against racing – although quite why you would want to do that is beyond me – is still enabled by this bill. But it is not about protests. Those who want to register their views are free to do so, but not in a way that puts horses, jockeys and other participants at risk. There is a certain irony about protests that could lead directly to harm.

I speak as a resident of Greenvale and a member of the Greenvale community, and I know that they care deeply about equine health and wellbeing and the treatment of our thoroughbreds. I want to thank the Minister for Racing for coming out with me before the election to Greenvale to visit Living Legends in the Woodlands Historic Park, which I waxed lyrical about in my first contribution to this place yesterday. It is 1000 acres of beautifully preserved bushland 20 kilometres from Melbourne, and one of the most wonderful parts of that park is the presence of Living Legends, which was established to nurture the deep connection between the community and our racehorse champions and promote life after racing for all horses. It is a retirement home for champion racehorses, including Fields of Omagh, who won the Cox Plate; Melbourne Cup winners Brew, Almandin, Efficient and Prince of Penzance, which was of course ridden by Michelle Payne in 2015 – who could forget; and, as a child of the 1990s, it is the resting place of Might and Power, Saintly, Doriemus and Northerly, who saw out their dotage in comfort, being cared for by the wonderful team at Living Legends.

I want to particularly thank Professor Andrew Clarke, the chief vet of Living Legends and the CEO, and the team, who provide a safe, nurturing home and above all a home where animal welfare is at the pinnacle of everything they do. They support school students with excursions, providing that experience in the bush so close to the city. They support the next generation of vet students coming into the racing industry by giving them that firsthand experience of equine health. They care deeply for their horses and their welfare, and I just want to endorse the work that they do. In our hospitality sector Living Legends is an important employer. It is a great contributor to our local economy, and it was justly recognised as the Hume Business of the Year last year, which was a wonderful endorsement of the work they do.

I just want to conclude my comments today by coming back to the original point. These are a commonsense set of measures that will really, I think, clear up a couple of loopholes that exist in country racing and in non-metro meets around Victoria to stop the kind of behaviour that we have seen a little bit too often at some country race meets – Penshurst and others, in recent years – the kind of actions that the member for South-West Coast and the member for Eildon have talked about. These need to stop. I am grateful for the deep interest of the minister in equine health and animal welfare. The provisions in this bill go a long way towards improving those around Victoria. I thank him for his interest. I would love to have him back at Living Legends at any time he can spare. He knows as well as I do the scones are as good as the animal health care that is provided. I thank the house.

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (11:17): There has been a lot of talk today about how racing, particularly country racing, is such a vital part of life in the bush. This bill will enhance the community’s safety whilst they are enjoying this pastime, and not just in terms of the economy either but in terms of the social fabric in small towns right throughout the state – not just in my electorate of 36,500 square kilometres but right throughout the state. In fact the Annabelle Cleeland Euroa Cup was held at the well-loved Benalla racecourse recently in torrential rain, but as I understand it, it was a terrific day. Country racing in places like Mildura; Manangatang, where my favourite horse, named after my home town Bannerton, bred and owned by Tony Natale and Charlie Camera in Happy Valley, won the cup in 2022 – it was a glorious day post COVID; and of course many other country race meets like Wycheproof, Donald and even the world-famous Patchewollock sheep race contribute more than just racing to these towns. If you have not been to the Patchewollock sheep races on the weekend of the Patchewollock Music Festival, I invite you to. It sounds mad, and it absolutely is, but it is a great time. It is a chance to frock up, get out and have fun. They bring visitors to the area and, as has been spoken about before on both sides of the house, enormous economic benefit to all towns that offer country racing.

Whether it is gallops, trots or the sheep races, racing really is an institution in Victoria. However, after two years of no crowds due to COVID, racing clubs in my electorate have been affected and inundated by flooding now, which is unfortunate. As I spoke about, iconic country races such as the Wycheproof Cup were called off with only a week’s notice, which is really hard. Meanwhile, there is no danger of anything going into unauthorised areas, or any area for that matter, in Mildura at the moment, which has recently been inundated by Murray River water during our recent flood event.

The Mildura Harness Racing Club, headed up by their president Pud MacDonald and his team, is a very hospitable racing club and is growing at a huge rate, going from 24 meetings a year to now 45 meetings a year, and more often than not – most of the time – that is a 12-race program, 45 weeks of the year, with average prize money of about $85,000. Most of those trainers, drivers and horse breeders are local, but they do come from Bendigo and they come from right around our tri-state area. Female drivers are not catered for at this stage, because it has been 20 years or more since the harness racing club has had any sort of upgrade, going from a tiny facility like a shoebox for a single female driver to now needing to accommodate at least nine. That is right now, but into the future that area is growing as well. They are in desperate need of more stables to make sure the horses are able to be properly cared for and so that enforcing this bill can actually be practicable, because at the moment it is cramped, there are people everywhere and it is hard to enforce – not to mention they have been out of their admin building, which has been condemned since a flood event again in November. So things are hard, but they push on. They are resilient in the true sense of the word, and we will keep pushing on, because it is such an important part of life in regional Victoria.

Country races of all disciplines, like I said, are an important part of rural life. Protecting this is vital and protecting the people that enjoy the races as well as the horses, the breeders, the drivers and the jockeys is as well. This bill seeks to do that, which is why we are in full support.

Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (11:22): I am delighted to rise to speak on this bill, and I can ensure the member for Eildon that this side of the house and this government absolutely support the racing industry in Victoria. Indeed I do not know that there has been a government in the history of this state that has supported the racing industry like the Andrews Labor government has. That is why I am so delighted to rise and speak on this bill, which has been designed in consultation with Victoria’s racing industry. Indeed I would describe this bill as a commonsense bill, as others have. It will go to prohibiting unauthorised access to restricted areas of racecourses and also official trials, and as I think the member for Ovens Valley spoke about, that is a really important part of this bill as well. Particularly leading into large races, trials can be attended by large numbers of patrons and obviously large numbers of horses and large numbers of staff, so that is a really important part of this. The bill also prohibits the kicking and throwing of projectiles into these areas. I cannot quite put it as the member for Greenvale did as to why this is so important, so all I will say is: unauthorised access to racecourses is bad, and do not do it.

What this bill does not do, as was so eloquently put by the member for Geelong, and what it is not designed to do is limit protest. Those on this side of the house, including me, agree and support peaceful protest; indeed I have taken part in more than a few, as the member for South-West Coast, I am sure, has as well. As we attend the May races in Warrnambool each year, we walk past many people that are engaging in peaceful protest, engaging with people and having conversations as they enter the racecourse. That is peaceful protest. What is not peaceful protest and what is not acceptable is the unauthorised access to racetracks and to areas in racecourses that puts in jeopardy the lives of horses and the safety of horses – but not just horses – staff, officials, patrons and others attending the racetrack as well. That is what this bill is designed to stop. As I said, I do not think the aim of this particular piece of legislation could be clearer: it is all about safety. It will not only protect jockeys and those attending races, but it will also protect the stars of the show, our equine athletes.

Like the member for Greenvale, I also spent far too much time in my youth and in my adolescence, and indeed leading up to my election to this place, at different race meets – regional and metro, but many, many race meets. Let us pluck a good country cup horse out of the sky: let us say Inverloch. We attend the Warrnambool races or indeed any other country cup during the year to watch the races and to enjoy the company of our family and friends – let us say, the Warrnambool Cup jumps. Inverloch goes to the front, as he usually likes to. They come around the bend. From the 200-metre mark he lets down and somebody jumps on the racetrack, for whatever reason that may be. I do not think that we could get a worse situation than that, and frankly I am not sure that we could get a more dangerous situation than that, on a race day. It puts in jeopardy the life of the horse, the jockey and the patrons surrounding that situation.

But what it also does – and, once again, the member for Geelong touched on this very well – is it puts in jeopardy the safety of the workers that are at that racetrack on that particular day. Every worker, irrespective of the industry they are in, deserves to go to and from a safe workplace. The Victorian racing industry generates $4.7 billion in economic activity for our state’s economy each year but it also supports, as part of that, 39,900 full-time equivalent jobs. As I said, workers in every industry deserve to go to work and be safe, and those protections are particularly important in an industry such as this. There are inherent health and safety risks in lots of different industries, and we could go through them, we could name them, but I think in this industry in particular those risks have another layer to them. A horse is not a piece of machinery that we can turn on and off. They can be volatile, which means that these protections are incredibly important. In recent years we have seen a number of instances of unauthorised access. They are rare but they do happen at Victorian racecourses. What this piece of legislation does is it really legislates for that, because one instance of unauthorised access is too many and the risks that it presents are too great.

The City of Wyndham, which is of course where my electorate of Tarneit is –

Paul Edbrooke: Great area.

Dylan WIGHT: Great area. It is quite often, in my opinion, the forgotten jewel in Victorian racing’s crown. We have the Werribee Cup in December each year, a fantastic event, and broadening the scope of this legislation, or broadening the scope of what already exists, will now mean that the Werribee Cup is covered by this particular legislation. I know that the Werribee Racing Club is incredibly supportive of that. But we also have adjacent to that facility and as part of that precinct the Werribee international horse centre. Many racing enthusiasts will know that when international raiders from Europe or from Japan come and they want to compete in our major races – the Cox Plate, the Melbourne Cup or the Caulfield Cup – their very first stop in this country is the quarantine centre at Werribee. There are also breeding facilities adjacent to that as well. So many of our past and future champions have passed through that precinct. This Victorian government, the Andrews Labor government, has been supporting that precinct, as I say, since our election in 2014. The Victorian Racing Industry Fund has provided over $1.6 million to the Werribee Racing Club to support eight infrastructure projects, with a total value of just over $3 million. The VRIF has also supported 11 events at the Werribee Racing Club, with just under $270,000 worth of investment.

In addition, the government has provided $4.95 million from the VRIF to support the equine limb injury prevention program. The equine limb injury prevention program is jointly funded by the University of Melbourne, Racing Victoria and the Andrews Labor government. The program is being led by Dr Chris Whitton of the University of Melbourne and is providing findings that are leading to revised training and rest schedules for racehorses, ensuring that fewer injuries are suffered. The research program saw Australia’s first standing CT scanner – at a cost of $1.3 million – brought to Melbourne and located at Werribee, just in time for the 2019 spring carnival. So as I said, my area and my patch have left a lasting footprint in Victorian racing.

I spoke earlier about the health and safety concerns for workers at these race meets. It is not just the workers that are directly involved in the Victorian racing industry; more than 650 community and not-for-profit organisations share racing club facilities in Victoria, and over 1200 charitable organisations are supported by the racing industry. Those workers can be on course on any given day, whether it is for official trials, whether it is for race meets or whether it is for any other activity. Nearly one-third of Victorian racing clubs have partnerships with education institutions, and 80 per cent of racing clubs hire out oncourse facilities for private and corporate use. So as I said earlier, the Victorian Labor government is committed to ensuring the Victorian racing industry remains a pre-eminent racing jurisdiction in Australia.

Tim READ (Brunswick) (11:32): I rise to speak on the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022, which amends the Racing Act 1958 to limit access to restricted areas of racecourses during horse races. It makes sense to keep people away from the dangerous hooves of fast-moving racehorses, and existing trespass laws and ‘Keep out’ signs do exactly that. It is reassuring to hear from other speakers that occasions of trespass are indeed rare in Victoria. It is probably fair to say that people who are drunk or for whatever reason are stumbling into these areas in the future probably are not going to be aware of the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill. So I wonder really about the purpose of this. The provisions of this bill can also be used – despite statements to the contrary – to stop protesters from interrupting race meetings.

Horseracing is an interesting business. It is no longer just a bit of fun; it is a big business involving a lot of money, most of which – an increasing amount – is bet online. It is strange how often racehorses crop up in stories of those with ill-gotten wealth. They often seem to like to spend their money on racehorses along with motor yachts and fast cars. With so much money at stake, really, the horses do not stand a chance – and this bill shows that perhaps the protesters do not either. This sort of legislation that we might see for vital infrastructure like airports now seems to be being used to protect the horseracing business. It would be bad for business of course to remind spectators that horses are often raced until their lungs bleed or until they break the fine bones in their legs, in which case they are often shot. In fact I drove the ambulance once at a race meet – it was the Werribee Cup – a long time ago. People probably commented that the ambulance was a bit erratic on that day. I remember seeing the green tent go out. I do not recall the fate of the horse, but it was a particularly grim day. Of course, more often than injuries, if horses just lose too often they wind up in tins of dog food. None of this is shown on the ads for the Spring Racing Carnival. In some ways I think horseracing would be more popular in the city if it was replaced with bicycles.

In any event, bespoke anti-protest laws disguised as safety legislation are not a new thing for this government. We have just seen it introduced recently to protect the native forest logging industry – we opposed that, and for the same reason we will oppose this bill.

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (11:34): I could try and make some sense of that, but I am not sure I can. I am absolutely excited to rise and speak on the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022. From the looks of those opposite – my esteemed colleagues on the other side of the bench – I think they are as confused as I am about that previous speech.

It does not matter where you stand as far as your ethics and morals in the racing industry go, whether it is the dishlickers – the greyhounds – the horses or whatever; it is legal and people enjoy it, and it is part of our community. I cannot say that I have been to many horseraces but when I have, it generally has not been for the horses; it has been to have a couple of sherbets with friends, enjoy my community and have a good time – and responsibly enjoy a couple of sherbets too. The fact of the matter is that this is a bill we have introduced with consultation with the racing industry – wide consultation – to make sure that we are making this industry as safe and responsible as possible.

For years the Victorian racing industry has tried in a number of ways to make sure that they are doing the best thing by their workers, by their animals and by their jockeys and competitors. The worst thing you will ever see is someone putting all that at risk by doing something really stupid. As the member for Tarneit said, and as many of us can agree on this side of the house, a peaceful protest is a wonderful thing – and it is a way that we shift different paradigms in our democracy. But when you have one stupid idiot jump out on a racecourse, endangering the lives of every single jockey and every single horse and themselves, and people peacefully watching that event, that is a time where we need to look at rules and policies and regulations to make sure that does not happen and we prevent it from happening at all costs, because these things are potential powder kegs for disaster. You can go from, 1 minute, people enjoying their time, enjoying a weekend at the races – whether that be at the Yarram races or at all of those different regional areas which have races, and they raise a lot of funds regionally from those events as well – to an event where you have made the front page of the paper and someone has been killed and the animal has been put down.

The other part of this bill that is very important is how we are engaging experts to ensure that animal welfare is at the front of mind of racing organisers and the competitors. That CAT scan machine worth just over $1 million is an amazing piece of technology. I have never imagined a horse going into a CAT scan machine. I am not sure. I might have to google it later. I imagine it is a fairly decent piece of machinery, but I am not sure too many states or nations would have that technology. That is another way to ensure – via this government – that we are looking after the welfare of these animals. Regardless of your thoughts on racing, there have been improvements over the last decade to make sure we are as responsible as possible.

The Victorian Racing Industry Fund has provided $1.6 million, as we said, to the Werribee Racing Club alone. Across the state that figure is much, much more, and the VRIF has also supported 11 events in that area. The government has funded just under $5 million – I think it is $4.95 million – to support the equine limb injury prevention program, and that is jointly funded by the University of Melbourne, Racing Victoria and the Andrews Labor government. The one person I am missing today is the former member for Yan Yean, because whenever we spoke about racing, she was very, very enthusiastic about this and had some great tales, some good stories, that would have us all in stitches. However, I know she is probably watching this, and we all know she probably is. I will be getting some comments later, and she will be able to share some stories. This program is being led by Dr Chris Whitten of the University of Melbourne, and those findings are going to inform our decision-making for the future of this sport as well. I say for the third time, regardless of your thoughts on this sport, it is legal, and like anything, if we are not moving forwards, we are going backwards. We really do need to make sure that we support these sports going forwards to make sure they are safe for everyone.

We have heard a couple of members talk about the fact that there are over 30,000 full-time jobs in the racing industry, and you see that throughout the regions; you see that in metro areas at metro races as well. But one of the things that I think is underestimated or overlooked at times is who these workers are. For a lot of us, we know our job is secure. The racing industry does provide secure jobs at the moment, but with the government investing in this industry we are ensuring that those jobs are as secure as ever, and we are building that industry. It is an industry that makes over $2 billion a year, and it is very important to this economy. Nobody in this chamber, Greens or otherwise, can deny that. You can have your thoughts about these quick solutions – ‘Let’s ban coal’, ‘Let’s ban gas’, ‘Let’s stop racing’ – but it is not quite as simple as that. In hearing some of those quick solutions to very complex problems yesterday – and it does not work out like that – I was reminded of a time when the Greens political party held a protest at Hazelwood power station. If the members opposite would allow me to just go off track just a little bit, they were camped out at the caravan park next to Hazelwood power station and they were protesting coal power. Okay, that was their right. It was a peaceful protest. What was not expected was that one of the linesmen from Hazelwood got a little bit narky and decided to go out that night and pull the mains fuse from the caravan park. The irony of that caravan park being vacant the next day was lost on no-one. You cannot just stand here, as the Greens do, and say ‘We want this’, ‘We want that’ or like what is happening in federal politics at the moment where they are willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater for the sake of perfect.

Regardless of what you think of racing, it is legal, and it is the job of a good government, like the Andrews Labor government, to ensure that we are making it safer, that we are more inclusive and that we are talking to the experts in the field – whether it be on animal management, animal welfare, animal medical and health, whether it be our racing colleagues or whether it be people from interstate, nationally or even internationally – to make sure that we are at the absolute peak of providing the best we can for this industry. I know the previous minister has set the bar pretty high. Mr Pakula was very, very – what would the word be – excited about his horseracing and still is, and I think he was an absolute bonus for that industry. I went to a few events with him on the peninsula. His racing advice and his betting advice was rubbish, but he was very much into horseracing, and he understood the industry. I know the current minister does as well.

Can I conclude my remarks by thanking the current minister and the minister’s advisers, who were able to give me a really good run-down on this bill, not so much on dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s but on the actual practical effect that this bill would have and when it would have that effect for our racing industry and on the ground, where the rubber meets the road, at the racing carnivals as well. I also thank the department. They do a great job in putting these bills together. I know the amount of consultation that goes into a bill like this is massive. As I have reiterated many times, and not everyone will agree, but again, this bill, I guess, is a bit of a watermark for this new Parliament. It is about us all being together, all being able to have constructive debate and respecting each other’s opinions about certain things in our community that we do not agree on. That is something that is going to continue. This Parliament will be challenged. We will be challenged by bills much more controversial than this. It is important that we keep that debate at a respectful level, which we have not always seen. We have not always seen that. But I have confidence, looking across at my colleagues, opposition but also Greens and my Labor colleagues, that we can move forward and, with bills like this, have that constructive debate and come to a consensus for the good of Victorians. I will leave my comments there. I know so many people want to speak on this bill, and I will let them do that.

Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (11:44): It is my great pleasure to make a contribution today on the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022, and I want to commence my remarks by dealing with some of the matters that were raised by the member for Brunswick. What we got today was the classic Greens speech, but it was sort of the Atkins version. It was all the protein and none of the fibre. It was the perfect Greens speech but just wrapped up in a 3-minute thought bubble. We had bikes, we had greedy corporations, we had ‘We hate protestors’ – we had all of it, but it was just wrapped up in a 3-minute succinct little package of Greens unctuousness and angst, which is extraordinary because they are in fact the only people who oppose this bill in this chamber, as I understand it, and so the totality of their contribution, wrapped up as it was in a neat 3 or 4 minutes there, was made with really very little elaboration. There was not much in the way of fibre or carbohydrate there. It was all the protein, just the little bomb right in the middle of it, and boy oh boy it enlightened us exactly not at all.

This notion that this is, and I will paraphrase the member for Brunswick here, an anti-protest bill dressed up as a safety bill could not be further from the truth. That suggestion is laughable, as indeed are many of the contributions made by our friends over there. But this is of course about safety, and what we have seen, regrettably – not often, but we have seen it – is people engaged in behaviours on, near or around racetracks that are dangerous to animals and dangerous to the staff in those workplaces. We know that horseracing carries some inherent risks, and we, like any good Labor government, are going to do our level best to make sure workers in those workplaces are safe and get to go home at the end of their shift. The suggestion that this is somehow some anti-democratic cruelling of public debate on these matters is just an absurdity, and I am disappointed that the Greens, who were the only people to oppose this bill when it came before this chamber in the 59th Parliament, have not sought to give us the benefit of their thinking about this and have simply just gone with the usual Greens tropes.

Paul Edbrooke: Three minutes.

Will FOWLES: Yes, 3 minutes of just the standard anti-corporation ‘We’re angry about the world’. I think he wanted bicycles to replace horses – was that in the race itself? A bicycle race on grass? It just beggars belief, frankly. But what it does give me an opportunity to do, apart from reflect on some of the contributions from the Greens party, is talk also about my idiot cousins. My idiot cousins are involved in a little punters club, and I will refer to them only by nickname. So we have got Freckles, Pincushion, Popcorn Teeth, The Masseuse and Fatso, and between them they are genuinely the worst punters I have ever spent any time with. Collectively the win rate would be lucky to be 3 per cent; it is just absolutely hopeless. One of them even works in racing.

Gary Maas: Which one are you?

Will FOWLES: I have got my own nickname, but that is unrepeatable in this chamber. One of them works in racing and still could not tip a winner to save himself. Extraordinarily, one of these idiot cousins has a stake in a horse called Kentucky Casanova. Apart from the name being stupid, unbelievably this horse was gelded a while ago and so is not looking at a big future in the stud farms. Despite that, when they got offered a big number, like half a million bucks, for the horse, they said no, and I’m like ‘What are you doing?’ Anyway, subsequent to that offer being refused stupidly, the horse has lost three races in a row, so they have literally seen the value tumble from 500 grand elite thoroughbred down to $2000 carnival pony level. In a group of idiots that is perhaps the most idiotic effort, to have just basically handed back half a mil worth of horse in circumstances where the thing is gelded and it has got no post-racing career to –

Paul Edbrooke: What’s gelded?

Will FOWLES: What is gelded? The removal of the ability to procreate I think is perhaps the polite way of putting that. So can I say to Freckles, to Pincushion, particularly to Popcorn Teeth, to The Masseuse and to Fatso, you are very, very bad at what you do and you ought really stick to your collective day jobs, however useless they may well be.

But there are some serious elements to this bill. They include a new set of offences about entering a restricted racing area during a meeting; disrupting the meeting without a reasonable excuse; throwing or kicking a projectile into the meeting – this is really dangerous behaviour, where you could see jockeys, officials or horses injured; causing any object to fly into or land within a restricted racing area, which is important because drones of course are very readily weaponised – they would say as part of a protest, but we would say as part of an unlawful and dangerous disruption to a lawful activity; and the last offence is climbing on the fence, barrier or barricade of a restricted racing area.

The penalties for these start at about – I just looked up the penalty unit in Victoria – $184.92 at the minute, or at least until the end of this financial year, and I suspect that number will march up pretty significantly, given the current inflationary environment we are in. That means that the penalties for those five offences I have just outlined range between $1800 and a bit over $10,000. So they are significant fines, which is all about creating a significant deterrent to those who would seek to disrupt. Our hope as a government would be to never have to issue one of those fines. Our hope would be that this becomes theoretical only, that there is no need to have application because we do not see people engaging in this stupid, unlawful and dangerous activity. Whether they are making a political point or not, it is not fair to endanger the welfare or safety– the lives– of horses, jockeys, officials or anyone else involved in the racing industry. The racing industry is a very big part of the Victorian economy. It is an important employer in our state. It is inherently a thing that is enjoyed, admired and in many cases loved by so many across our community, and it is incumbent on all of us I think in those circumstances to make sure that the conduct of those race meets is safe.

I want to point out an important distinction here which I do not think has been addressed in the submissions that I have heard before you, Acting Speaker Halfpenny. There is a separate category for major sporting events – a separate set of rules – and they are in fact more significant and more onerous rules than the rules we are proposing to adopt in this place today. The reason for that is that major events, which are covered by the Major Events Act 2009, have a very, very important role in our economy and also are high-value targets, if you like, for those who would seek to disrupt. Whether it is the Australian Open or whether it is the grand final, a bunch of those very significant events need their own special statutory cover. Some race meets – obviously things like the Melbourne Cup – fall into that category. They get a separate set of protections that are not covered by the bill that is before the chamber today. What this bill does is pick up all of the other race meetings – so race meetings that are not classified as a major event under the Major Events Act. It is to those meetings that these rules apply.

Major events get a special bit of coverage and have a whole legislative framework around them to protect those events, given their significance to the state. There is one small exception to that, which is the offence of causing any object to fly into or land within a restricted area. That will apply to every single race meet, whether it is a major event or not, and that is because there is currently no such rule in the Major Events Act. If I could be so bold as to predict this: there may very well be a rule like that in the Major Events Act at some point in time because, as we are seeing with the proliferation of drones and their relatively low expense, we can reasonably expect that they will be used as a tool to disrupt by those who consider that making a political point in that way is appropriate. We do not have that view. Members on this side of the chamber do not have that view. Most of the people over on the other side do not have that view either. I commend the bill to the house.

Darren CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (11:54): It is with some pleasure that I rise this morning on the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022. Indeed this is the second time I have had the opportunity to contribute to this particular debate. Of course this legislation did not make its way through this place and the Legislative Council at the back end of the last parliamentary term. I very much want to put on the record that the broader Geelong community is a place that has a very, very significant equine industry and has had for a very, very significant period of time. A quick snapshot of that industry very much highlights in a Geelong context but also in a Victorian context the significant size that it adds to our economy and the significant number of jobs that are either in part or in full created as a consequence of Victoria’s very proud equine industry. In a Geelong context that equates to thousands of jobs when you look at it in its totality and indeed in a Victorian economy context to many hundreds of thousands of dollars. In a dollar context of course it is worth billions of dollars to the Victorian economy. When we look at racing particularly, Victoria has a very, very proud reputation globally of having a very strong and well-regulated racing economy.

The Victorian Labor Party has had a very, very long history of striving to improve every worker’s rights, particularly when it comes to occupational health and safety. As we know from the history of this state we made significant gains as a labour movement in the mid-1980s with the establishment of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Of course that act applies to practically all industries in the Victorian economy, and indeed it applies to the racing industry. I think that has seen the rights and the opportunities, really, for workers to be able to participate in their workplaces throughout Victoria in all aspects of paid employment, ensuring that those people have a great chance of going to work, earning their wage and having that capacity to safely return home at the end of each day, at the end of each shift, and have secure employment. As a consequence of the introduction of those arrangements we have seen every single industry becoming practically safer in the Victorian economy, and that is a very proud and long reform in Victoria.

We know particularly in terms of racing we have got thoroughbreds that weigh up to 500 to 600 kilograms. We have got those racehorses on a racetrack moving at 50 to 60 kilometres an hour. In that context there are of course inherent risks to the animal and to the jockey. I think we need to have a set of arrangements in Victoria – and I would indicate that those arrangements ought be taken nationally and indeed internationally – to make sure that those that might have a different view about the contribution of the racing industry can protest and can do so legally and appropriately but in a way that does not place a huge risk on jockeys and indeed on those thoroughbreds that they race or see the consequences of spooked horses and what that might mean to those at the racetrack watching, whether it be as spectators, track attendants or others that are indeed at a racetrack, particularly in that competitive space where the horses are racing. This bill provides them that opportunity to be safe so that they are not spooked, as the spooking of those animals leads to those jockeys and others potentially losing their lives as a consequence. Every democracy is healthier when we do have the opportunity to peacefully protest, but of course that peaceful protesting must be done in a way that does not endanger people and that does not endanger those in their workplaces and others that might be enjoying, in this context, the sport that they very much love.

In a Geelong context of course we have got the Geelong Racing Club. That is a very historic race club that has quite a number of race meetings throughout the year. On some of their bigger race meetings on their racing calendar they will have up to 300 people working on that racecourse providing hospitality, but there will also be many thousands of jobs throughout the economy that are underpinned by that race meeting, even if those workers are not at that track on that occasion, whether they be vets or trainers or strappers or breeders or others that might earn their income in the broader equestrian economy, which is of course very, very strong. I am very proud to have the Geelong Racing Club in my community. I am very proud to see the contribution that they make to our civic life. They do create many, many jobs. Indeed the Geelong Cup, particularly as a lead-up event to the Melbourne Cup – many national and international horses use that race meeting as an opportunity in the lead-up to the Melbourne Cup, which is a fantastic occasion on the Victorian calendar. Of course we get a public holiday. Many people get along and watch it. Many people participate in sweeps and other things in their workplaces, and it certainly is the race that stops a nation.

I also know that we have many, many country race meetings, which are a highlight for those small communities throughout Victoria. The Andrews Labor government will continue to make appropriate investments into racing. We want to make sure that we have a globally strong industry and we are a place that globally has a strong reputation. I think the various legislative reforms that we have put in place strengthen that industry and make it an even stronger racing industry throughout Victoria and globally.

I am very proud to commend this bill to the house. I look forward to it passing both chambers in the near future so we can continue our proud reputation of supporting this industry and supporting workers to have a strong set of occupational health and safety rights so that they can return home at the end of a race meeting safely.

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (12:05): It is a pleasure to rise and speak on the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022. It follows some great contributions in this house talking about the importance of the racing industry and the right to protest but also maintaining safety on all counts. But I had to bounce the ball and kick off, or giddy-up, on the contribution of the member for Brunswick, who got to about 167 seconds – this was the depth of the contribution – that basically fundamentally touched on, ‘Give those working people, who are underpinned by the racing industry, a bicycle.’ That was the message of the Greens to working people in regional and rural communities, in metropolitan areas – give them a bike. Forget about the tens of thousands of jobs, the billions of dollars in economic revenue. What is going to put food on the table is not a couple of bike tyres. That is the intellectual rigour that we bring into this place. The contribution did not reflect on the substantial work that is being done by Racing Victoria, the Victorian government and the University of Melbourne in equine safety and support or the investments, that I will go through, that really are leading the nation in equine safety and support in our communities. Of course those in the industry over a long period and a long journey want to see the best outcomes for their workers and for the animals that underpin the industry and make sure that we are always striving for a better outcome.

The Mordialloc electorate was littered with racecourses just over a century ago. There was the Mentone racecourse, the Epsom racecourse estate, where some fantastic horses were trained. There is a monument to Phar Lap at Braeside Park. And of course the suburb of Aspendale is named after a racehorse, Aspen, as the horses used to gallop around the track through there. So it is a part of our history out in the City of Kingston region and indeed across the south-east. Still some of the employment outcomes at Sandown and at Cranbourne and some of the events that are had there are quite significant across racing and the greyhound industry.

I want to take this opportunity to also recognise the contribution that has been made over a number of years by the Victorian government to the racing industry. Since we were elected in December 2014 more than $126 million has been invested in more than 1200 projects that we have co-sponsored with the industry. We are fronting up not only in our words. The member for Eildon seemed to suggest that there was a bit of ambiguity or uncertainty in the support of the Victorian racing industry. The former minister Martin Pakula – who I do not think is tuning in, but we will give Marty a bit of a shout-out; he is always good for a quaddie and a tip – was a passionate advocate, if anyone saw him in action on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, with passion for jobs, the industry and support. You can see that investment being made. That is the partnership that Victorians have gone on in investing in jobs and creating opportunities in regional and rural communities. So $126 million co-funded in that support. Some of the highlights include, just in the last 12 months, upgrades to the inside grass track at Warrnambool, which was $1.57 million; upgrades to the synthetic track at Pakenham; and more than $850,000 to support the kennels at Bendigo, Geelong, Horsham, Sale and Shepparton, just to name a few. So we are putting that investment into those projects that are really important as well.

But it is not to denounce some of the concerns and issues. We have seen that with some of the reviews that have been done of the greyhound and horseracing industry. It is not to denounce people’s right to express their view and to put forward their opinion on where they think our state should go into the future. Of course anyone on this side, anyone of the Labor movement, understands, appreciates and respects people’s right to freely voice their opinion in a safe and inclusive way. But where we put the lives and livelihoods of people at risk, directly undermining the safety of others in our community – that is where this bill is at the heart of this discussion. We have seen unauthorised access to tracks, to areas that put people at risk and put people’s safety at risk, and that has been of great concern. That is the nature of this bill. The fact that the Greens are fronting up to suggest that we are undermining protests is extraordinary. They turn up to try to be the workers’ friend for 5 seconds and then bail, then like today, make a 167-second effort that goes right away from working people’s values. It absolutely just shows their interest in this area and the lack of engagement and depth in this debate. It is a real concern to think about some of those discussions that have been had and the impact that they would have had on communities. But thankfully, with an Andrews Labor government majority, and hopefully bipartisan support from the coalition, we can ensure that this industry is strengthened and protected into the future.

We want to make sure that at all times our trainers, our jockeys and our horses and animals are respected and protected as well, and this bill goes towards recognising that and bringing the level of enforcement and penalties – and enforcement is a really important element to this to make sure people are safe at all times. It is important to reflect – and I think it adds something to the debate – about the actual argument around equine safety and support. It is an important topic because we have seen this evolve over time, we have seen the discussion around jumps racing and we have seen the discussion around the horseracing industry as a whole. Evidence that was presented to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee at the last budget hearings talked about some really great leading work that is being done by the Victorian government. Just last year the former minister announced extra funding through the Victorian Racing Industry Fund for a new PET and a second CT equine-imaging unit for use by the thoroughbred industry. Importantly, the fund is a joint project between the Victorian government, Racing Victoria and the University of Melbourne, and it builds on research that is already underway and quite extensive into equine limb injury prevention. That program has seen nearly $1 million invested by the Victorian government and then that significant investment by Racing Victoria and the University of Melbourne, taking that up to nearly $2 million. That ability to have real-time data and access to those CT scanners and PET scanners, which are underway now and were to arrive for the spring carnival, is where you are putting practical solutions into action as well. I am advised that some of those really nation-leading technologies now are some of the first in Australia, so we are setting the tone in not just Victoria when all eyes are on our wonderful Spring Racing Carnival – you come out of the footy season and straight into the Spring Racing Carnival.

We see some substantial attendance across metropolitan Melbourne but then regional and rural Victoria that is almost all year round. For some of the events we see people piling into town. We want to get more people out of metropolitan areas into regional Victoria – that is going to be a really big focus going forward. We have seen that with Visit Victoria and the great campaigns. You can go out for a long weekend and you can check out some of the best that Victoria has to offer. Supporting the families, businesses and communities that underpin regional Victoria is a great way of the economy supporting those communities as well, not just a visit on racing occasions. You can go any time, but you might connect with a place and really fall in love with it and want to go back over and over again. That is the whole picture in this segment: tens of thousands of jobs underpinning generations in communities over and over and over, putting food on the table. Whether it is in science and technology or whether it is hospitality, events management and all of those inputs, the training and development outcomes are substantial, so we need to make sure we are providing support from a training and investment standpoint in the future.

Something that we all care so deeply about on this side is the protection of workers and their outcomes. I think that is really important of all the elements of this bill. It is complex policy that you bring together and you show as a government you are living your values and those actions as well. We do not walk away from some of these challenges; we lean in, we understand, we invest and we work with industry and some of the leading researchers in the nation, if not in the world, with the University of Melbourne.

This bill makes sense. It is coming back for its second go. Giddy-up – let us get it through the house into the future. There are a few more puns I wanted to run out, but that is probably where I will leave it. I thank the work of the former minister Martin Pakula not just in racing but across the Parliament – what an extraordinary leader in Victoria. You will see him at the trots, every single time with a hat and a coat, and off he goes. We really appreciate his service to Victorians. This is a great industry, and we want to see it thrive into the future. And to New South Wales: no chance. Melbourne is the destination – the Spring Racing Carnival. We own that space, all of Australian knows that and that is not going to change for decades to come.

Steve McGHIE (Melton) (12:14): I rise to contribute to the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022. Firstly, I would like to thank the member for Ivanhoe, the Minister for Racing, and of course his hardworking staff on their work on these vital updates to one of the most important pieces of legislation, the Racing Act 1958. As well as being a workplace for thousands of Victorians, our racing industry contributes upwards of $4.7 billion to our economy. Of course racing has been part of our heritage, and I know with my upbringing in the western suburbs I was very close to racetracks and harness racing tracks, the royal showgrounds and Flemington Racecourse. As a younger person I and my brother and some friends of ours always used to either jump over the fence and get in free or cut a hole in the fence and get in free, so we were at the races on a weekly basis – not unusual for boys from Braybrook.

Regional racing is important to country towns and communities. It creates jobs; it creates productivity. It is a local celebration, and as the member for Mordialloc said, it is not just about the races; it is about getting to these towns and spending some money and having a great time. I know the local communities enjoy their local races and use them as very much a social event. Tabcorp Park harness racing track is in my electorate of Melton, and it is more than just a racetrack; it is a workplace, it is a recreational venue, it is a hotel, it is a conference space, it is a bar. Tabcorp Park is one of the most advanced harness racing tracks in all of Australasia. It is a fantastic place and a fantastic social gathering place.

Racing is indeed a worldwide market and attracts significant international investment and tourism. Horseracing events such as the Melbourne Cup and the Spring Racing Carnival draw large crowds of both local and international spectators. While international owners and breeders also participate in the industry by either importing horses or coming here to buy horses when the sales are on, they are also participating in the races, and we have seen over quite a number of years with the Melbourne Cup how international it is now. It is not just an Australian race, it is an international race.

I would like to acknowledge the remarks made earlier by the member for South-West Coast. I too am part of that club of those that have spent more money on our animals, our own horses, than we have spent on ourselves in regard to our health. I have owned horses for over 30 years, and they are quite expensive when they get injured or sick, but you do everything you can to try and keep them well. As I said, I have owned horses for a long time. I have been in racing syndicates with friends and family members. The member for Ringwood alluded to a syndicate of his cousins, and he said that they had a very poor win rate.

Will Fowles: Very poor.

Steve McGHIE: I can assure him the syndicate that I am in probably has a poorer win rate, but we keep going. It is every Saturday. It is like a magnet; they keep dragging money out of our pockets to have an interest in these beautiful animals running around a track. Of course this bill is to try and keep these animals safe by keeping people away from them and separating some people that think that they can go into areas that they should not go into.

I do want to make reference to the contribution from the member for Greenvale, his fantastic contribution and the earlier physics lesson that he gave us. I think it was fantastic. I used to love physics at school, and from his passionate contribution he obviously knows a lot about horseracing, the way that he was rattling them all off. It was fantastic. As a horse owner I can confirm that they are around 500 kilos and they do get up to speeds of at least 60 kilometres per hour, and they easily get spooked, unfortunately. They do have their own mind at times, and there is not a lot that we can do about that when a silly human being tries to do some damage and spooks a horse of such great weight and such great speed. People go to the races, and they can have a great time, but of course sometimes humans, when they go to the races, indulge in a little bit of alcohol. Most of the time it is men that try and put themselves in positions that they should not be in on a racetrack and that will certainly scare the great thoroughbreds. Also we have seen it at other race meetings, not only in thoroughbred racing but also in harness racing, and there have been issues at the greyhounds also where people have jumped the track and scared the animals off.

This act predates the establishment of the TAB, which led the rest of the country in regulating and controlling the growing illegal betting industry. While it may have started just down the road from where I grew up, just near the Pioneer Hotel with its stunning views of Flemington Racecourse, we have seen significant and constant changes to this industry and improvements all the time. The member for Mordialloc referred to the amount of money that the Andrews Labor government has contributed to try and improve our racing industries, improve the facilities and improve the workplaces and make them safer. It is a fantastic industry with many tens of thousands of jobs and workers. We need to keep them safe, as we need to keep the animals safe, right across the industry. The changes to the Racing Act are necessary for a multitude of reasons: societal requirements, values and priorities, regulatory changes, protecting and enhancing the safety and welfare of animals, technological advancement, transparency, accountability and integrity. This act is one of the most regularly amended because of this, and always with valid and important reasons. We seek to strengthen the aging Racing Act by creating allowances within it. What we are trying to do here is to further protect Victorians at work by prohibiting unauthorised access to the restricted areas of racecourses during race meetings and also during official race trials and by prohibiting certain identified disruptive conduct and allowing for the enforcement of these new offences. These amendments are about protecting the workforce and horses and the other animals at other race meetings.

As I alluded to earlier, I have owned horses for over 30 years now. I currently have two retired thoroughbreds. I do not think they won any races; I am sure they did not win any races. Of course I know they are still costing plenty of money because they have got to be fed every day, they have got to be vetted all the time and they have got to have farrier treatment and all those sorts of things. So they are a costly beast but they are a beautiful beast, and we would not get rid of them for quids, even though it is costing us quids to keep them going.

Some of the necessary alterations include expanding the definition of a racecourse, which allows for the inclusion of areas that are necessary for safe conduct with greyhounds, training horses, land used by racers and the pathways that are required to connect them. So what you see is quite often you have got areas between the racetrack and racing stables – things like that – that are avenues for access for these animals to be able to get from one to the other. Clearly you try and keep spectators away from these restricted areas so, firstly, they do not interfere with the animal and, secondly, they do not spook the animal. We saw an incident at one of the Melbourne Cup events some years ago where someone did not jump the fence but waved quite a substantial-sized flag, and one of the high-priced horses – they are all high-priced horses in the Melbourne Cup, but I think it was an import and quite a favourite within the Melbourne Cup – unfortunately got spooked and put its leg through the fence. It seriously damaged its leg, and it had to be euthanised on that day. That was avoidable, that particular incident. Even just waving a flag near a horse can spook it and damage it, unfortunately.

Through these amendments we are seeking to create some sort of consistency and in some instances make the legislation easier to interpret, with an eye to improving compliance and the understanding of what we are trying to do here. These are industry-driven amendments with widespread consultation and acceptance. The community is on board with it all, the industry is on board, and these are amendments, as I said, that are approved widely. I have been to many, many race meetings right across the state, not only thoroughbred – harness racing, greyhound racing; I have tried them all. I have not backed many winners, but it is great fun. It is a great industry. I applaud these changes and amendments to the act, and I commend the bill.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (12:24): I am pleased to speak on this bill, and I think it is very important when we are discussing legislation to not create other purposes that are not actually those for which the amendments are being brought before Parliament. I have heard some suggestions around the chamber – not on our side of the chamber – that there may be some other interesting purposes for which these amendments are being brought forward, and I just want to make it clear that that is not the case in this instance. I am being a little cryptic, I could say, and I am going to get to the point because it is obviously also important that we have clarity when we are discussing legislative amendments. This legislative program here, in terms of the bill that we are discussing today, is not about whether racing is or is not to continue, and so we have heard some who are wanting to go on these interesting tangents. But actually that is not what we are talking about today, and that will not be fulfilled in the discussion that we have here today. So I think it is important to park those various concepts because they do not in any way help in the discussion that we are having on the proposed amendments today.

Secondly, there have been some other suggestions regarding restricting protest rights et cetera, but I should clarify that this bill was never designed to deal with protest activity outside racecourses. This was never a consideration of this bill, so I think it really is not helpful to be importing such connotations or such elements. They certainly do not lend anything to the tenor of the debate. Fine, you can put forward what you like in the chamber; however, at the end of the day it is important to stay within the ambit of the bill if we are to fulfil the requirements of the amendments themselves.

So what are the problems that the amendments are trying or seeking to resolve? First of all, there have been several instances of spectators running onto the track at race meetings in Victoria and in other states and New Zealand. That is the problem. In Victoria incidents have occurred at Cranbourne, Moonee Valley and Penshurst, and it has been acknowledged around the chamber that these incidents are few; however, you only have to have one incident that has a devastating impact and that would be one incident too many. In that regard it is very important that we have appropriate controls in place now. I am going to speak further to those legal elements in just a moment because there are some important nuances when we are discussing the changes in front of us, because the areas that have been identified as restricted areas reflect the current operational arrangements that are already in place at racecourses across Victoria. So to suggest that we are expanding the areas that are going to be protected, so to speak, or where we want to prevent inappropriate behaviour is simply wrong.

Really the purpose of the legislation is to provide a clearer understanding for those who may not have already embraced what I would think is actually common sense – that you should not behave inappropriately and should not enter restricted areas. Why? Again this comes down to the problem that these particular legislative amendments are seeking to resolve – that is, that somebody or an innocent animal could get seriously hurt or, worse still, somebody could die. I hate to be so frank and so candid in our discussion, but we have to because we know that one cannot isolate the possibility of such an occurrence happening, particularly when there is reckless indifference in the way that someone behaves in and around a restricted area – noting what has been stated already, that this really is about health and safety. It is a workplace. I am reiterating some points that have already been made in the chamber, but they are very good and sound and rational reasons for making sure and for really making it very clear that there is no place for this kind of inappropriate behaviour.

Now, what sort of behaviour are we talking about? Again, it is coming back to the problem that the legislative amendments are seeking to resolve. The new offences will include unauthorised entry into a restricted racing area, disrupting a race meeting or official trial meeting while in a restricted racing area, throwing or kicking a projectile into or within a restricted racing area, causing an object to fly into or land in a restricted racing area and climbing on a fence or barricade separating a restricted racing area from a non-restricted area.

I think we can all agree that there are some very sound reasons as to why committing any of those offences would be extremely undesirable and on the potential ramifications of such behaviour. Simply no good will come from that behaviour, and it really is very much a validation of the reason for bringing about these amendments. Now, I should say there is a very important caveat – and that is, that a defence of ‘reasonable excuse’ will apply in respect of these new offences, which will cover situations such as retrieving a child or responding to an emergency. In that respect, certainly in terms of the drafting of the legislation, real-life circumstances have very much been factored in to make sure that the legislation does not extend beyond the purpose for which it has been designed. That should give comfort to those who may have had concerns about what the ramifications or the potential contingencies of the application of these amendments might be.

I think the member for Brunswick was talking about – I may have misunderstood and do not want to misquote, and I am happy to be corrected – that somebody might not be aware of these particular amendments and so forth. Our having listed out the range or the ambit of the behaviour that is desired to be contained, so to speak, or to be deterred or that we are seeking to discourage but in the very strongest way, a reasonable person should be naturally mindful that that behaviour is simply unacceptable, and to suggest, ‘Oh, they may not have been aware of this’, or otherwise is fanciful at best, noting we have those necessary caveats in place which allow for the reasonable ramifications of human behaviour as well. I think that should bring some comfort to those who may have had concerns about how these legislative amendments might apply.

I did say that I would speak a little further to the nuances of the legislation, and I will do that now. We know that at most Victorian racing industry race meetings, people entering the premises do so having accepted any conditions of entry attached to their ticket and any accompanying risks, obligations and responsibilities as determined by the racing club managing the event at that racecourse. While this may provide an event manager with the ability to remove a patron who breaches the conditions, it does not – and here comes the clincher – provide a sufficiently clear and effective deterrent of dangerous and antisocial behaviour, and hence the rationale for bringing forward these amendments.

Now, there is a further nuance there. Civil actions for trespass or nuisance brought by the racing club, or body or person who manages the racetrack, against a trespasser could lead to an award of damages – yes. However, this is a costly and protracted potential remedy. Hence this is, I would argue, a far more practical and reasonable way of resolving the problems that have already been, I think, very well traversed in the chamber to this point in time. Accordingly, to conclude, it is very important – and I say this as humbly as I possibly can – that when we are discussing legislative amendments we do stay within the ambit and the purpose for which those amendments have been designed. Fundamentally this is about containing behaviour that is simply stupid, inappropriate and potentially extremely dangerous, so there is a sound rationale for these amendments.

Ros SPENCE (Kalkallo – Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, Minister for Community Sport, Minister for Suburban Development) (12:34): I move:

That the debate be adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.